Several independent newspapers are on trial these days in Kazakhstan, including “Pravdivaya Gazeta” (True newspaper), which existed only a few months.

In her interview with Jarayon, Rozlana Taukina, a public figure and journalist well-known in Kazakhstan, the chief editor of Pravdivaya Gazeta,speaks about reasons of the newspaper’s closure and attitude of the authorities to independent media.

Jarayon: Mrs. Taukina, I would like to start our interview with events in regard of suspension of Pravdivaya Gazeta license, the newspaper you have headed. Could you tell our readers about this newspaper, how it was created, what stories were published?

Rozlana Taukina: Pravdivaya Gazeta was registered in Kazakhstan as a socio-political newspaper on March 27, 2013. This newspaper is owned by individual entrepreneur Ismagulova Alia. In the first issue, an unpublished book of politician Zamanbek Nurkadilov was published. He was found killed with two bullets in the chest and one bullet in the head in 2005 in Almaty. Justice Minister Baurzhan Mukhamedzhanov then announced that the politician committed a suicide, but no one believed that version. The last book was voice recorded on tape by Nurkadilov. We got these records, and transcribed them. Contents of the book became a sensation because a former ally of President Nazarbayev, a former mayor of Almaty and Emergency Situations Minister appeared to be a very knowledgeable person and spoke about many of his colleagues, methods applied by the President, and about many new and unknown matters.

In addition, Pravdivaya Gazeta had a lot of information, analytical and critical materials about the state of life and politics in Kazakhstan. Since the first issue was published, the newspaper was a success, but also it attracted authorities’ attention. We got the first administrative penalty for the first test issue of the newspaper. After obtaining a license, we released a test issue, and in accordance with the law, we wanted to have a three months break to hire editorial staff. But we were immediately accused of violation of the regularity procedure and not mentioning that the newspaper was weekly. We could not add the word “weekly” as our intention was to release next issue in three months, but we got the highest possible penalty under the Administrative Code of 50 monthly allowance indexes, about 600 U.S. dollars.

And then we drew attention of the Almaty city administration’s domestic policy department, which found faults with each issue of the newspaper, and each time sued us finding minor technical mistakes or misspells. In its turn, the court suspended publication of the newspaper for three months in a strictly manner. For eight months, Pravdivaya Gazeta was fined twice in the amount of 50 monthly allowance indexes and was suspended two times for three months. The last time, we were punished on December 28, 2013 for printing errors, which in fact were done by the printing house, which reprinted copies at its own expense. But the city administration received defective copies of our newspaper from the printing house, and again we were fined and the newspaper publication was suspended again for three months. So, we got four penalties in 2013.

Jarayon: There was a court trial on Monday, February 10 in Bostandyk District Court of Almaty city based on a suit of Bostandyk district prosecutor’s office to cancel the license of Pravdivaya Gazeta. Could you tell us about the trail? What violations did you observe?

Rozlana Taukina: On February 10, we were summoned to the court following the suit of Bostandyk district prosecutor’s officeof Almaty city. The demand was to deprive the newspaper of the obtained license for the whole set of the penalties imposed in 2013. In the Kazakhstan Code of Administrative Violations, which has the highest legal force as compared with the Mass Media Law, there is no such punishment as closing a media outlet for imprint violations even in case of recurrence of such violations.

Article 350 of the Administrative Code titled “Imprint violations” states the following:

1. Printing of periodical publications without imprints, TV, radio and electronic media broadcasting on air without announcing identification information or obscure or deliberately false imprint shall entail a fine of up to twenty monthly allowance indexes with confiscation of media product copies or without confiscation.

2. Actions stipulated by the first part of this article and committed repeatedly within one year after imposition of an administrative penalty entail a fine of up to fifty monthly allowance indexes with confiscation of media product copies and equipment used for production and distribution of media products, or without confiscation, or suspension of issue (broadcast) of media products up to three months. We asked to give us some time to review the case, and found out that they wanted to impose penalties for the defected issue of Pravdivaya Gazeta dated November 22, which had imprint mistakes as instead of the editor’s office telephone number and the number of the registration certificate, the printing houses printed crosses. And the revised, corrected and reprinted copy of the newspaper was not used although it existed. The court trail was attended by more than thirty observers, including public figures, politicians and readers, and thanks to that, the judge did not dare to complete the case fast and adjourned the trial for February 12.

Jarayon: Some Kazakh community activists mention in the Internet that they are outraged by the closure of Pravdivaya Gazeta. They believe this is arbitrariness of the authorities against the independent press. They also believe that the newspaper was deprived of its license following an order “from above”. Do you agree with this opinion?

Rozlana Taukina: We agree that quibbling about the imprints is only an excuse to close Pravdivaya Gazeta for political reasons, and as we know due to rumors, the authorities are very annoyed by the name of the newspaper.

Jarayon: A few years ago, in 2008-2009, many Kazakh human rights activists asserted that Kazakhstan is slipping towards Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, closing all independent media outlets like in neighboring countries, persecuting and putting pressure on independent journalists, human rights activists and oppositionists. Over the past two years, this trend in Kazakhstan has increased. During this period, many independent newspapers were closed, and several independent journalists and human rights defenders were either fined or imprisoned. Why do you think Kazakhstan is departing from democracy? How do you think this will affect the position of the civil society of the country in the near future?

Rozlana Taukina: In Kazakhstan, there is no mechanism for change of power, and the longer the person stays in power, the more he or she has to establish and strengthen his or her power to avoid talks about illegitimacy and violations of democratic principles. The main objective of the current authorities is to control the information space making attempts to exclude pluralism, statements disloyal to the authorities, and of course, to exclude any control over the authorities, which often act against interests of the people of Kazakhstan. There were over 6,000 independent media outlets at the dawn of independence in Kazakhstan. Now only six newspapers out of 3,000 existing media outlets oppose the authorities.

This is a drop in the ocean, but even this drop is very popular among the readers, and displeases the authorities. Last year, 23 print and online media outlets under the common name “Respublika”, Vzglyad (Opinion) newspaper, and K-Plus satellite channel were closed. K-Plus satellite channel covered the tragedy in Zhanaozen, where oil strikers were shot on February 16, 2010. Repressions continue this year. Six journalists were imprisoned for their journalistic activities. Poet Aron Atabek is still kept in prison. He was punishment with 16 years of imprisonment for taking part in protests against demolition of Shanyrak neighborhood. At present, Pravdivaya Gazeta and Ashyk Alan newspapers are on trial.

Jarayon: Ms.Taukina, thank you for the interview.

Interview prepared by Guzal AKHMEDOVA